20VC: Carvana CEO on Buiding a $50B Company, Losing 99% and Coming Back | Ernest Garcia: Inside the Mind of the Most Misunderstood CEO in America

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Ernest Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Carvana. Under Ernie’s leadership, Carvana went from a back-of-the-napkin idea to a $50+ billion public company, became the fastest-growing online used car retailer in U.S. history, and landed on the Fortune 500 in under 10 years. However, it was not all up and to the right, in 2022, the stock plummeted 99% to a market cap of just $400M. Today they are back with a market cap of $35BN, that is a 100x in the public markets and selling 400,000 cars sold annually, with a logistics network that rivals Amazon.

In Today’s Episode with Ernie Garcia We Discuss:

04:12 Are all great founders just “stubborn egomaniacs”?

06:55 How Carvana Almost Died on Several Occasions

08:46 Is Carvana’s Inability to get VC Funding a Sign the VC Model is Broken?

11:58 Operators vs. Strategists: What Hires Can Make or Break a Company?

21:46 Billionaire’s Biggest Lessons on Parenting

26:52 Is Life About Happiness or Achieving

32:21 The Reality of Being a Public Company CEO

39:07 Why Companies Should Go Public

43:55 Why You Should Price Your IPO to Perfection with No Pop

50:50 “What I Wish I Had Known About Debt in Building Carvana”

52:32 Quick Fire Round: Favourite CEO, Marriage Advice, Carvana in 10 Years